Roller Coaster
2023 · 7m
Directed by Sapphira Chen
Genres: animation, coming-of-age, fantasy
Tones: contemplative, surreal, whimsical
A nervous girl encounters a strange spirit at the train station -- and is invited to try on a roller coaster.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
A girl meets a spirit at a train station and tries on a roller coaster—sounds like it should be treacly coming-of-age pablum, but Chen's refusal to explain the metaphor or resolve it neatly is genuinely unsettling in a way that makes you distrust your own relief.
The film's restraint in visual storytelling and its careful modulation between whimsy and dread situates it within a lineage of European art animation that prizes emotional precision over narrative clarity—formally assured work that earns its ambiguity.
Chen's decision to let the sound design carry the emotional weight rather than rely on dialogue or exposition is what transforms what could've been a precious concept into something that actually lands—that single choice of restraint is the whole film.